


the knights, the princess, and the shooting star

by enuzv



Category: NCT (Band), WAYV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Space, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, End of the World, Gen, M/M, OT7, Space Exploration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:02:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28526667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enuzv/pseuds/enuzv
Summary: The world is ending in seven hours.In the heart of SS Princess Shouning, seven men gathers to watch the last sunrise together.
Relationships: Liu Yang Yang/Xiao De Jun | Xiao Jun, Qian Kun & Dong Si Cheng | WinWin & Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten, Wong Kun Hang | Hendery/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas
Comments: 20
Kudos: 239
Collections: Challenge #4 — Awaken The World





	the knights, the princess, and the shooting star

**Author's Note:**

> "the knights, the princess, and the shooting star" is a translation of “Kesatria, Putri, dan Bintang Jatuh” by Dee Lestari (2001)
> 
> —
> 
> SS Princess Shouning (from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
> 
> SS Princess Shouning, or SS Shouning (CHX-0110), is a starship operated by Earth Space Force for the Argonaut Mission to map out the Laniakea Supercluster. Launched in 2410, the starship is named after Princess Shouning, a princess from the Ming Dynasty, and is the second largest starship to date.

When Commander Qian Kun received the transmission, it had been as clear as the sky on his last day back in Taining: the world will end on November 27, 14:12 China Standard Time. There was no trace of misery in the voice of whoever was on the other side of the line, no pity, nothing. All he heard was the cold, hard truth. An asteroid the Space Force failed to detect is projected to impact, and by the time they discovered it, there was not enough time and manpower to deflect.

 _R7452-LF, 90 kilometers across, slightly bigger than the Chicxulub impactor. Fifteen degrees of sky opposite the Sun_.

The night his grandfather showed him his telescope and guided him to see Jupiter and its neighboring satellites, he knew the sky would always be his first love. Since then, to see the universe with his own eyes and to set foot in new worlds were his only dream. His blind faith towards the Institute, and later, the Force, were his own form of attestation to that. He told himself that the wait would be worth it in the end, and after years of seeing his contemporaries leave, his time to depart finally came.

CHX-0110 was announced. Qian Kun was the first on board. The Argonaut mission would be his, the Director had said to him, and he was made a leader of the new project. The mission was supposed to last for approximately fifteen years and they were instructed to come back to Earth, providing essential data for the next exploration: to find another habitable planet for humans to live in.

 _SS Shouning won’t be able to come back anymore_ , the briefing was absolute. Now, to find said new home for the rest of them who are still weaving through space is their responsibility, although Kun knows it’s all wishful thinking. The spaceship won’t last longer than its designated longevity. 

“They will send live feed of the last sunrise to us tomorrow morning.” One of his engineers says when he visits the Office. It’s 12:47 back in China and Kun feels his stomach sinking.

“Will you watch?” He asks.

“No.” She answers, getting up from her seat and gestures for him to take her place. “Have a good day, Commander.”

Kun knows what he wants to do.

  
  
  
  
  


“We need a medical team.” Yongqin told him over the phone three days after his graduation from the Institute. CHX-0110 was just another name for Dong Sicheng back then, the newest project of the Space Force that Li Yongqin, his senior, was currently stationed at as one of its first pilots. The project was still a plan, no launching dates at the moment, but Yongqin was always wonderful with words and had never let him down before.

“ _Ge_ , I don’t think I can go.”

“I know, but I also know you’re the best we’ve got. Please reconsider.”

Sicheng had promised his family that the Institute was just a logical choice. The best medical school in the nation that no longer felt like home. He promised them that he would never go, but Sicheng knew he had always wanted to serve in the Space Force. _You are replaceable up there_ , his father had said with the memories of his own serving days evident in his eyes. _Here, you are everything to us_.

He should've listened. But, the next day, Sicheng signed up for the project and packed his bag. He said nothing at the hostile look his family gave him the day he left, a year after the first offer came, and never looked back since then. CHX-0110, now SS Shouning and its Medical Bay, had become his new home. 

Sicheng was on his night shift when Commander Qian Kun came by the Bay to ask for some painkillers. He knew Commander Qian from his first day in the project when all Sicheng had was Yongqin and him, waiting in the Nursery after the announcement before other crews were recruited.

“The world is going to end.” Commander Qian said, eyes looking straight at him, and everything had felt so final that his first instinct was to run to Communication and dial a number he put in seven years ago in case of an emergency.

_Baba, have you heard the news?_

_Is everyone okay?_

_I’m sorry. I’m so, so, sorr-_

_You have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service._

The night before the world ends, Sicheng puts his earpiece in and tries to reach his home one last time.

_You have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service._

  
  
  
  
  


Liu Yangyang knew something had happened. He didn’t know exactly what, but judging from the call for all crews that Commander Qian had ensued and the disappearance of his roommate earlier in the middle of the night, that something would definitely be worse than anything he could’ve imagined, perhaps a galactic destruction for a Mission Specialist to be called out of his working hours.

He attended the assembly and saw Xiao Dejun in the center of the room, his tablet placed in a chair beside him to save Yangyang a seat. A routine they had ever since they became roommates in Nursery and Shouning. Commander Qian stood in the center of the room with a straight face and voice level as he explained the latest situation on Earth and Yangyang felt nothing but the chill that started to seep into his bones.

_The world is ending._

“What about us?” One of the engineers he knew from his days at the Institute asked, and it took Dejun’s full strength to hold him in place and not get up from his seat to punch them in the face.

The world is ending, and what makes you think you get to live longer in this?

He thinks about his life back in Düsseldorf and what he’s about to lose. His niece who’s going to start school next month, his nephews who are training at the Institute, his cousins who were waiting for their turns in the Nursery, his family home with mugs of hot chocolate for cold days. He doesn’t regret signing up for Shouning, but the end of the world is terrifying and he starts wishing he had made his choices differently.

Would it make a difference if he stayed?

“What will you miss the most?” Yangyang asks Dejun as they lay together in the bottom bunk. Yangyang was too lazy to climb to his own bed and Dejun didn’t seem to mind, so here they are. 

“ _Daan taat_.” Dejun says after a beat of silence. Yangyang halts his laugh when Dejun takes a deep breath and turns to look at him. “Of course I’ll miss life on Earth.”

With their sides all warm, pressed against each other, Yangyang thinks differently. It would have turned out the same, either way. Düsseldorf or Shouning, nothing would have mattered more than this.

  
  
  
  
  


“I plan to invite them to see the sunrise.” Commander Qian says to him. Honestly, Yongqin hates calling him that way, but he’s on duty right now and he has no choice but to address him properly.

“Them?”

“Sicheng. Xuxi. Guanheng. Yangyang. Dejun.” Kun drags his finger over the blinking radar in front of them. “You.”

“And I thought what we have is special.” Yongqin laughs at the glare in Kun’s eyes as he sits down beside him. “The first seven for the last, huh?”

Kun’s eyes soften and Yongqin knows he’s right. They always have this sense of understanding between them ever since they were the only two people in the project, even back when they were still in the Institute and competing for the highest mark in Aeronavigation. Kun is, somehow, never wrong, and honestly Yongqin trusted him more than all of his trust for the rest of the crews combined.

And that’s why he knew everything is over when Kun played the transmission recording in the assembly, because Kun is always right and the silent fear in his eyes told Yongqin everything he needed to know.

 _The world is ending_.

They are light years away from Earth, safe and sound from the impact, but there will be nothing to call home in the next 24 hours and Yongqin can’t help but think it’s a fate worse than death.

Sicheng was the first person that Kun had told the news to and he wasn’t even present in the Atrium. Yongqin knew it’s mostly his fault that he’s here and not back in Wenzhou with his family. _It’s okay_ , Sicheng had said when Yongqin chased him down to the Bay, eyes refusing to meet him and Yongqin wants nothing more than to turn back time and not sign Sicheng up for CHX-0110 that day, or probably not meeting him in the first place if it means not taking him away from his home like this. 

“Have you talked to Sicheng?” Yongqin asks with low voice. Kun turns around in his seat to look at him, his gaze morphing into pity as he takes his earpiece out and understands him just enough to move closer, placing a firm hand on his shoulder.

“It’s not your fault.”

For the first time in his life, Li Yongqin thinks he’s wrong.

  
  
  
  
  


The only thing from his mother that Huang Xuxi brought along as Shouning departed is a cassette tape.

He doesn’t quite remember the name of the singer but Xuxi knows what it had meant to her. The cassette was the last surviving copy of its kind, one of the best selling Cantonese-pop albums in the 20th century that she kept in the shelf of their living room back in Shatin. Commander Qian once told him that Doctor Dong is really fond of the artist. _Promise_ , Commander Qian had answered when Xuxi asked him about his favorite song from the album, the same song that he and Yongqin usually sing along to when they have shifts together in Navigation.

Guanheng made him a device to play the tape for his birthday a year ago. He can’t even begin to fathom how Guanheng managed to build something no one in their generation had ever seen before with zero to none resources available, but perhaps that’s what makes him a Chief Engineer of Shouning and not anyone else. 

“Now you can listen to Promise whenever you want to,” Guanheng had said with a smile and Xuxi had kissed him right there. He called back home the next day, telling his mother about the device, the hands behind it, and his mother promised to make the best _zhu pa bao_ for, in her words, her future son-in-law when both of them come home, all bright and cheerful.

She might not be able to fulfill that promise now, Xuxi told her over the phone with shaky voice after the assembly. He was petrified but God forbid he let it show, so he kept his facade until he reached Communication and used his rank to bypass the queue to call back home. _I’m sorry_ , he said. _Please stay well_ , even though it made no sense anymore in a world that has come to an end.

“Don’t be sorry.” His mother answered, tone firm, and his heart still breaks to this day. 

“You still have a long way to go. Promise me you’ll live it to the fullest, okay?” She whispered. “I love you, Yukhei.” 

Now, as he lays down in his bed with Guanheng pressed close against his chest, trembling fingers running through his hair, Xuxi hopes he’s doing good at keeping his promise.

  
  
  
  
  


“Let’s see the sunrise together.” Dejun asks, cutting off Yangyang’s story about the fallen Rhine Tower of Düsseldorf and hates how his voice cracks at the end. It’s 3:18 and the live feed will start in two hours.

When Commander Qian called him to his cabin with no further explanation, Dejun didn’t have any idea on what could possibly happen to Shouning that night. Yangyang told him about some problems in the Reactor earlier, but if that was the case, then it should’ve been his responsibility as the head of nuclear scientists on board, not Dejun’s.

 _Argonaut will have a new purpose_ , Commander Qian replayed the final transmission recording to him and it served him like a wake up call to list all of his regrets out in retrospect.

He should’ve called home more. And so he did, spending hours in Communication to call back to Guangzhou and listen to his parents telling him about things to do in their last days. Mostly trivial, but Dejun would’ve given everything up to be able to be with them in their final moments. Some of his regrets were too far gone to fix, but he managed to make his peace with it and work on the rest. _This is what finality does to you_ , Guanheng had said to him.

And when Yangyang crashed into his bed with pleading eyes, Dejun didn’t have it in him to push him away anymore. He listens to his ramblings and the thought of Yangyang who might want him the way he wants him tempts Dejun to ask about the sunrise, and so he does.

He doesn’t expect Yangyang to stare at him with storm in his eyes, body stilling. His anger is justified and Dejun knows it. 

“You’re waiting until the end of the world for this?”

Dejun grits his teeth but doesn’t look away. “I was afraid that I might regret it.”

The younger man laughs, his voice sharp when he fires back. “And now that we’re running out of time, you think you won’t regret this?”

 _I know I will_ , Dejun wants to answer. He takes Yangyang’s hand in his instead, wiping the tears with his fingers, telling him everything he deserves to hear. _I know I will regret not saying anything sooner_. _I will forever regret not doing this sooner_.

  
  
  
  
  


“Do you know that the seventh pole along the Shing Mun River is painted red?” A boy beside him blurted out in the morning of their first day in the Institute. 

“I have never been to Shatin, but it should have been black, shouldn’t it?” Guanheng extended his right hand in a friendly gesture. “Are you from Hong Kong? My name is Huang Guanheng.”

That’s how he knew Huang Xuxi. Class of 2408, the only graduating pilot in his year to receive an offer from the next major project of the Force, even though he backed off last minute to depart with Shouning two years after. He was one of the first people he met in the Nursery after he applied, and also the only one who showed no visible fear when Commander Qian called all crews for an assembly a week ago.

“I have no regrets.” Xuxi had said when he visited his room yesterday night, eyes staring at the picture on Guanheng’s bedside. “But Hac Sa would have been nice.”

The picture was his family picture taken at the said beach, right at sunset when he was five. His sister gave it to him as a parting gift along with a necklace that has a cross as its pendant for protection. In the picture, the sky was colored in all shades of violet with burning red parting the sea in the middle, and it was the last family picture they took before his father went away and never came back home.

“When your mission is done, we should return to take another picture.” His sister had pointed at the framed picture. Now, Guanheng silently wishes for more time because he, too, would love to take Xuxi to see the sunset and replace the picture with a far happier memory.

Xuxi knocks at his room three hours before the sunrise. Guanheng tucks his necklace inside his shirt and is taken into a warm hug right after he opens the door.

“The world is ending today.” Xuxi murmurs against his forehead, arms tight around him. If he didn’t know better, Guanheng would have thought he’s not afraid. 

He thinks back to Hac Sa and blinks twice to chase away the prickling in the back of his eyes. “At least I don’t need to learn to live without you.”   
  
  


The world is ending in seven hours and the sunrise is beautiful and lively. It’s haunting, in a sense, it’s everything they loved from Earth and nothing like the twinkling stars against the pitch black of the fabric of space they are sailing through for all their youth. There are tears running down Dejun’s face and Yangyang is holding on to him for dear life, their eyes glued to the glowing screen. Kun holds his breath and thinks they deserve it. Yongqin is beside him, grip tightening around his fingers, apologies falling from his lips right into the slow pace of Sicheng’s heartbeat. No one said a word at the silent acceptance Sicheng wears across his face as a smile.

The world is ending in seven hours and Xuxi hums softly to the tune of Promise with his head nested in the curve of Guanheng’s shoulder. He might not get to show Guanheng that the seventh pole along the Shing Mun River is, in fact, painted red, but at least they have each other and it’s enough. In turn, Guanheng closes his eyes and thinks he would love to meet Xuxi again in their next life, if time allows, and perhaps then fate would be kinder to them. He taps the back of Xuxi’s hand in patterns, a part of secret codes they have been using for years, etching the remaining purple sky of Hac Sa in his memories forever in the back of his mind. 

The world is ending in seven hours and the first seven crewmen of SS Princess Shouning are together for the final glimpse of life they once had. In many ways, it doesn't seem as frightening as they imagined.

**Author's Note:**

> the song mentioned throughout the story is Promise - Faye Wong.
> 
> most of the events and "facts" mentioned are fictional, including the SS Princess Shouning (Princess Shouning is a real princess from Ming Dynasty but the spaceship is fictional).
> 
> thank you for reading!
> 
> twitter: honeycloudcake


End file.
